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A petition demanding that the UK’s new sweeping surveillance powers are repealed has garnered more than 100,000 signatures, the level at which Parliament can debate it.

Theresa May’s controversial Investigatory Powers Bill, which have been described as the most extreme snooping laws in a Western democracy, were approved by the House of Lords earlier this month and are set to pass into law in the coming weeks.

They require internet providers to store customers’ web histories for 12 months and make those records available to police, and write computer hacking by spy agencies into law.

The UK has just legalized the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes farther than many autocracies. https://t.co/yvmv8CoHrj

The bill also requires companies to break encryption in certain circumstances, although groups such as Apple, Facebook and Google have argued that the parameters for this are hazy.

The petition warns that “With this bill, they will be able to hack, read and store any information from any citizen's computer or phone, without even the requirement of proof that the citizen is up to no good.

On Monday morning the petition had received more than 118,000 signatures. At the 100,000 mark means a petition can be considered for debate in the House of Commons, although there is no obligation for Parliament to do so, and several petitions that have hit the level have not been debated.

Opponents of the Investigatory Powers Bill believe that it has barely been scrutinised due to the fallout from June’s EU referendum.

It has been criticised on privacy grounds, with bulk data collection even of those not suspected of wrongdoing. Internet providers will not collect the individual web pages browsers visit, just the main domain – such as telegraph.co.uk – but this is still seen as an invasion of privacy.

Security experts have also raised fears that companies' databases of browsing histories would be a boon for hackers.

The petition’s supporters have included Kim Dotcom, the flamboyant founder of Megaupload, and the Open Rights Group.